


30 Days of Winter

by cordeliadelayne



Series: Snupin Santa [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Desperation, Gender or Sex Swap, Genderfuck, Happy Ending, Kisses, M/M, changing gender, lots of kisses, magical curses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 19:12:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4678163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snape is suffering under a curse that will slowly turn him into a woman. If he doesn't receive a kiss from the right person before the end of the month, his transformation will be permanent. But there are consequences for kissing the wrong person and soon Snape is on an increasingly desperate quest to find his perfect mate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	30 Days of Winter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [karasu_hime](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=karasu_hime).



> Set in a post-DH world where nobody died. Written for karasu-hime as part of the Snupin Santa exchange of 2010.

**Day One**

The shack was dark, only lit by fireflies dancing by the window. It was cold too, ice already penetrating into the middle of the room. Outside snow blanketed the ground, cutting the inhabitants off from the rest of the Muggle world. To all intents and purposes they were in their own universe; no one knew they were there, no one cared.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, Severus, for the last time. The Sylph put a curse on you." Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "It's not like you to allow yourself to be trapped like that."

Snape bristled but settled for pulling his cloak around his shoulders, rather than hexing Madam Pomfrey. She might be infuriating, but right now she was the only person who could help him.

"And the cure?"

Poppy looked at Severus' cold hands, delicate and longer than normal. "You're not going to like it."

Snape snorted. "That, I can readily believe."

**Day Two**

Snape stepped inside the small tea shop and glanced furtively around. He felt ridiculous. He pulled his cloak tighter around his neck, trying to keep his hands as hidden as possible. This was abominable and it was all that damned wolf's fault.

The tea shop was decorated in pink and white doilies, with pictures of pink and white cats framed along each wall, with the odd picture of a teapot (pink) thrown in for good measure. The waitress behind the counter was dressed all in pink and looked like a blancmange had thrown up over her. Snape's stomach was beginning to churn just at the thought.

"Severus! Severus, over here!" Lupin waved his arms above his head and Snape rolled his eyes before stomping over towards him. At least he'd had the good sense to sit in a corner booth.  
  
"Lupin," Snape said coolly.

"I ordered tea, and Èclairs," Lupin said as the waitress moved over towards them, tray in hand.

"Did you, indeed," Snape replied. He sat down and moved his chair so that he had an unobstructed view of both exits. "You're presuming that I'm going to stay long enough to eat."

Lupin smiled. "Of course you are."

They held a silent stand-off for some minutes until Snape, hating himself for it, slowly removed his cloak, arranging it neatly on the back of his chair.

"Can I see?" Lupin asked.

Snape glared at him, putting his hands on his knees, underneath the table. "How much did Poppy tell you?"

Lupin sighed. "That you'd been cursed trying to retrieve some ingredients. That you're slowly becoming female. That you have a month to stop the process or it becomes permanent and that only the kiss of your one true love will stop it." Lupin gave a small smile. "Does that about cover it?"

During Lupin's speech Snape's gaze had gone distant, as he stared at a point over Lupin's head and two red spots appeared on his cheeks.

"Yes, that is correct," Snape snapped.

"Severus..."

"Poppy said you were willing to help me," Snape interrupted. "What recompense are you expecting?"

"I - " Lupin frowned. "Severus, don't be ridiculous. I don't want - I just want to help you."

Snape looked incredulous. " _Really?"_

"Of course."

There was a strained silence which Lupin filled by pouring out the tea and putting a chocolate Èclair on Snape's plate.

"Do you, do you have any ideas?" Lupin asked. "About who - well, you know..."

Snape glared at Lupin and felt the colour drain from his face. "There is no one. This whole exercise is pointless." He took hold of the tea cup and took a fortifying sip. Lupin's gaze fixed on the long, thin fingers that were cradling the cup, more feminine than usual, but Snape was reassured somewhat by the fact that he wisely didn't make a comment.

"Surely there must be -"

"No, Lupin."

Lupin sighed and took a bite of his Èclair. "Maybe you just don't know it yet," he suggested, mouth still full. Snape shot him a painful looking eye-roll and he swallowed quickly before continuing. "You should test out a few likely candidates."

Snape's glare would have disintegrated Lupin's bones, if he weren't already so used to it. "What do you suggest - I write a list of eligible candidates and work my way through them?"

Lupin shrugged. "Not a bad idea."

Snape's mouth twisted into a sneer but it was obvious that he had no better suggestion.

"Very well."

**Day Three**

Severus stared at his reflection in the mirror and cursed it. Of all the changes he was experiencing, the fact that his hair now looked lustrous and almost...touchable, was both the most welcome and the most aggravating. He found himself touching it almost unconsciously, enjoying the feel of it. He remembered all the times Lily had told him how he could better care for it himself, and how he had always told her that he wasn't interested.

Of course, he had been interested. He didn't like the names he was called and realised that he could have fixed the problem himself a long time ago. But he was also desperate for his peers to like him for who he was not because, or despite of, what he looked like.

He snorted and rubbed at his arm where the Dark Mark was still faintly visible. He could see that it was just another one of his foolish, youthful mistakes. Perhaps if he had done as Lily said, he would not be in this position now.

He turned away from the mirror and went back to the kitchen, where Lupin was waiting with the list Snape had spent the night compiling. It wasn't a very long list and he had rewritten it many times. He hoped that Lupin would approve of it and then scowled at himself for caring what a werewolf might think.

"So, this is it?" Lupin asked as Snape re-entered the room. He pointedly didn't ask what Snape had been doing out in the hallway.

"Evidently."

Lupin smiled a small smile that looked merely perfunctory and then stared down at the parchment in his hand.

> Bill Weasley  
>  Charlie Weasley  
>  Kingsley Shacklebolt  
>  Albus Dumbledore  
>  Professor Flitwick  
> 

"They're all men," Lupin said after a moment.

Snape moved over to the cauldron above the fire. "Your powers of observation are truly startling, Lupin."

"I just..." Lupin shrugged. "I didn't know you were -"

"Is that a problem?" Snape asked, voice icy. He was more than prepared to throw Lupin out, through the window if necessary.

"Of course not, Severus," Lupin replied, turning around in his chair to face the other man. "I thought you realised I was, am, gay."

Snape stared down his not inconsiderable nose at Lupin. "I thought your dalliances with Black were merely matters of convenience."

"No, they weren't. Well, not entirely." Lupin flushed, clearly uncomfortable. "Anyway, that's not why we're here." He turned quickly around to the parchment still dangling from his fingers. "And I noticed you haven't put me down here. Or Sirius."

Snape's laugh was as grating as it was unwelcome.

"Have you taken leave of your senses? Sirius Black, my one true love? Nonsense."

"And me?" Lupin asked, quietly.

Snape declined to answer.

**Day Four**

Sirius Black was still curled over in a laughing fit three minutes after Lupin had told him the news about Snape (Lupin had counted).

"Honestly, Sirius, will you stop it. He'll be here soon."

"What - he's, oh my side, the oily git's actually coming _here?"_

Lupin glared at him. "How else is he going to kiss you?"

Sirius immediately became sombre. "You have got to be kidding. There's no way in hell that I'm Snape's "True Love". None. We hate each other."

Lupin shrugged and twisted his ponytail absently between his fingers. "Opposites often attract. Maybe all that hostility is hiding something deeper."

Sirius shook his head and sat down at the kitchen table. "You've been reading the advice columns in those Muggle papers again, haven't you?" Lupin's silence was answer enough. "He'll never do it. I mean, can you imagine? Kissing _that?_ "

"I assure you I find the enterprise just as distasteful," Snape growled, as he apparated into the room. Sirius muttered something under his breath about supposedly impenetrable wards, but neither Lupin nor Snape paid him any attention.

In fact Lupin was staring at Snape, attempting to find out what new change had occurred to the other man. There wasn't anything overt, but as Snape sat elegantly opposite Sirius Lupin thought he could detect a narrowing of Snape's waist and a certain fullness in his hips.

"I'm not a freak show at the circus," Snape spat in Lupin's direction. Lupin flushed guiltily, especially as Sirius was grinning at him. Lupin wished Sirius wasn't being so flippant about it all.

"I still don't understand why you picked me. Something you want to tell me, Snivellus?" Sirius asked, wiggling an eyebrow.

Snape pursed his lips and Lupin watched him flex his fingers, as if about to call forth his wand.

"It doesn't really matter, does it, Sirius?" Lupin said. "All that matters is that you're both here, and we just need you to kiss each other and get it over with."

Snape took a deep breath. "I would appreciate your help in this matter," he said very slowly, each word obviously causing him deep, physical pain.

Sirius looked surprised and then stood up. "All right, come on then."

Snape stood awkwardly and the two men stared at each other for a beat. Lupin tried to keep his anxious twitching to a minimum.

Then the tension broke and Sirius grabbed Snape and pulled him into a vicious-looking kiss. Snape flailed a moment before allowing Sirius to proceed. And then he pushed Sirius away so hard he fell to the floor, the wind knocked out of him.

"Hey!" Sirius started to yell but then he stopped, obviously shocked to see Snape fall to the ground, clutching his face.

"Severus? Severus what it is? What - " Lupin rushed forward, pulling Snape close to him. Snape's hands were both covering his face and he was moaning as if in pain. "Severus, let me see..."

Lupin gently pried Snape's fingers away from his face as his breathing slowed to irregular panting breaths.

"Ah," Sirius said from his position on the floor. "I guess we know what happens if you don't get the right kiss then."

"What - what do I look like?" Snape asked in a small voice.

"You look beautiful," Lupin said, honestly. Instead of his normal sallow complexion and large nose Snape's face was now more clear skinned and delicate, everything in perfect proportion.

Snape stared at Lupin and then at Sirius, none of them saying a word.

**Day Five**

"Yesterday's experiment didn't work," Snape said into the fire. "Things are worse than ever today."

Lupin knocked on the study door and then peered around it, but Snape didn't appear to notice his arrival. They'd agreed that Lupin would let himself into Snape's house every morning at 10am so they could go over the plan for the day and it wasn't like Snape to not be prepared for his arrival.

"Yes," Snape said, in a response to a question that Lupin couldn't hear, "my - penis - is...I don't...Albus, what am I going to do?"

Lupin had never heard Snape sound so desperate, or so afraid. He had the overpowering urge to go over there and place his arms around the other man, to pull him close and tell him that everything was going to be all right. But he was sure that his overtures would not be appreciated.

Instead, he knocked loudly on the door, as if he had only just arrived. "Severus? It's Remus."

Snape hurriedly stood up and away from the fire. "Lupin. You're...I'll be with you in a moment. You can wait in the kitchen."

Lupin ducked out of the room quietly and padded down to Snape's kitchen. He started to make a pot of tea and had it and some toasted crumpets ready for Snape when he came in, looking his normal self, aside from his more delicate facial features.

"I made you breakfast."

Snape stared at the plates of food for a moment and then nodded. "Thank you."

Lupin kept his surprise off of his face and sat down to his own meal. Snape poured out the tea and then proceeded to pick at his food, taking only a few morsels before pushing the plate away. Lupin used his best glare on Snape and with a roll of his eyes Snape picked up a crumpet and took a large bite.

"Better?" he asked once he'd licked the butter from his lips.

"Much," Lupin said, clearing his throat hurriedly. "Who shall we turn to next?"

"Albus is on his way," Snape said.

Lupin's eyes went wide. "You really think _Albus_ might be the love of your life?"

Snape shrugged and turned away. "I respect him greatly. And he is gay, which is certainly a mark in his favour."

Lupin didn't see it that way himself, but wisely remained silent. Surely Snape knew the workings of his own heart better than anyone?

They remained in fairly companionable silence in the kitchen until there was a knock at the door - rat-a-tat-tat, quickly followed by Albus Dumbeldore himself.

"Ah, my dear boy, how are you?" Albus asked Snape.

"Let's just get this over with," Snape said, standing up and waving at the space between himself and Albus. Lupin took the opportunity to turn around and make Dumbeldore a cup of tea, not wanting to be witness to The Kiss.

He could hear it, though, and was feeling decidedly uncomfortable, when Snape gasped in pain, and Lupin twirled around, nearly dropping the cup in his hand.

"Severus?" Albus asked. "Are you - ?"

Snape just shook his head and fell to his knees, clutching his stomach.

"I see," Albus said after a moment, "the wrong kiss speeds up the process."

"Evidently," Snape replied through clenched teeth. And if a tear appeared in the corner of Snape's eyes, neither Lupin nor Dumbledore mentioned it.

**Day Six**

The owl arrived whilst Lupin was getting dressed. It was a fluffy grey thing that he'd never seen before. The note tied to its leg was clearly written in Snape's handwriting though and Lupin wondered where Snape's usual owl - a beautiful black creature with piercing yellow eyes - was and what task Snape had sent her on.

The note was short and to the point.

> Lupin,
> 
> Your assistance is not needed today.
> 
> Snape.

Lupin stared at the note, wondering whether he should go and check up on Snape anyway. But he had never been one for going where he wasn't wanted, so instead he went to his local library and spent a restless day browsing through the books, not able to settle on a single one.

**Day Seven**

When Lupin next visited Snape's house he was let in by Bill Weasley, who was looking somewhat sheepish.

"Hello Remus," he said and stepped aside for Lupin to come inside. "Snape said you'd be around. He's uh, in the bathroom."

"Is he all right?" Lupin asked.

"Yeah, yeah, it's...it's all a bit weird though, isn't it?"

Lupin nodded. It was certainly that.

He let Bill show him into the living room and serve him tea. Lupin wondered whether they had already shared a Kiss and now Bill was setting himself up in a new home. He desperately wanted to ask even though he equally desperately didn't want to know the answer.

Nor did he want to examine his own feelings of why he cared so much what the answer was.

"We haven't done it yet," Bill said, interrupting Lupin's maudlin thoughts. "You know, kissed," he added, as if Lupin weren't already perfectly aware.

"Right," Lupin said. "Why not?"

Bill helped himself to a chocolate biscuit from a plate on the table - one Lupin couldn't imagine Snape having set out.

"He said he wanted to wait for you."

Lupin nodded slowly but no matter how he examined the problem, he still had no idea why Snape would care about his presence or not.

"I've been examining my clitoris," Snape announced to the room as he entered. Bill, just having taking a mouthful of biscuit, proceeded to choke on it and was only saved by Lupin's slap on his back.

Lupin opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again. He really had no idea what he could possibly say after Snape's opener.

"I've never seen one before," Snape added, looking, now that Lupin could see him properly, a little wide-eyed. "Though I don't believe the nerve endings are in place yet."

Lupin looked over at Bill, who was looking back at him with the same look of fascination and horror he felt on his own features. They turned as one towards Snape and noted that he was rubbing his hands together again and again, as if he couldn't stop himself.

"Severus," Lupin said softly. "Severus, you need to stop that."

Snape looked over at Lupin as if seeing him for the first time. "Yes. Yes." But he didn't stop until Lupin had stood up and taken his hands and separated them. It was a shock to Lupin, to feel how delicate Snape's hands now were, removed of all callouses and as smooth as a child's, but he schooled his expression into one as professional and detached as he could manage.

"Why don't you kiss Bill? You never know, he might be the one." Lupin tried to sound encouraging and to ignore the hammering of his heart as Snape looked up at him with eyes that were his and also not. He reminded Lupin of a caged animal trapped against his will.

"Yeah, I'm game," Bill said, standing up and moving towards Snape. "I'd like to be able to help."

The three of them stood there for a moment before Snape nodded and moved his hands away from Lupin. "Yes, let's get this over with."

Bill and Snape moved towards each other and Lupin turned away, feeling uncomfortable. He heard the kiss and then the sharp gasp of pain from Severus. It hadn't worked. Again.

**Days Eight, Nine, Ten and Eleven**

Snape stayed in his room, refusing to talk or let anybody see him.

**Day Twelve**

Lupin was sipping a cup of tea in his living room, staring out of the window. It had started snowing again the night before and the ground was thoroughly blanketed in white. It looked beautiful, and he was partly tempted to go out there and make a snow angel, if he didn't think his aching bones wouldn't thank him for it. Maybe he'd go and do it anyway.

There was a knock at the door and he started, spilling tea onto his leg.

"Merlin's beard," he muttered, hurriedly dabbing at himself as he headed towards the door. "One minute!" he called. He grabbed his wand and did a quick drying spell, which seemed to work satisfactorily.

He finally opened the door to find Snape standing there. At least, he thought it was Snape. The person was so wrapped up in a heavy coat, scarf, hat and gloves that their features were almost unrecognisable. If Lupin wasn't so used to the way Snape held himself, he might not have recognised him at all.

"Severus, is everything..."

"I need more men," Snape hissed, and then sidestepped Lupin to get inside. Lupin raised an eyebrow in some amusement and then shut the door, shivering at the cold Snape had brought in with him.

"I thought you had a list," Lupin said as he followed Snape into the kitchen, where he started making himself a sandwich.

"I do. Did. There are still options. But given...In light of...I thought..." He paused and glanced over at Lupin. "Some other candidates might be in order."

"Okay," Lupin agreed. "There's Hagrid." Snape shuddered theatrically but then nodded and took a bite of his sandwich. "Harry..."

"No."

"Severus..."

"No. Under no circumstances. I would rather....turn into a woman!"

Lupin sighed. "He is old enough and..." He stopped as Snape's glare turned into something far more murderous. "All right. I suppose that rules out Ron too, then? How about Charlie? He'll be heading back for Christmas soon."

Snape took a moment to consider before finally flinging off his outer clothes, (revealing a more feminine profile that Lupin very much did not comment on).

"Very well. Charlie is an acceptable addition."

"Right. Tea?"

Snape nodded and then looked down at his now empty plate. "Thank you for the food," he said in a stilted manner but Lupin just waved it away.

"My house is your house till we get this sorted," Lupin said. Then he stopped and considered his words, which seemed to have surprised himself as much as they had Snape. But he did mean them so he didn't take them back, and started to help Snape draw up a list of other candidates for the Kiss, and wondered again why his name was never on it.

**Day Thirteen**

In a fit of superstition Snape refused to discuss matters regarding the Kiss. Instead he and Lupin sat inside the warmth of Lupin's house, playing chess and drinking brandy until the thirteenth day of "this insurmountable hell" came to an end. (Snape's words, not Lupin's. Lupin was starting to think it was something else entirely).

**Day Fourteen**

Kingsley Shacklebolt's office at the Ministry of Magic was more impressive than Lupin would have credited. There were lush carpets and wall hangings and beautiful art work that even Snape stopped to admire.

The man himself was dressed impeccably in a Muggle-style suit and looked like he'd just stepped out of one of those Muggle magazines Ginny was so fond of looking at.

"So," Kingsley drawled, "I understand you've been cursed, Professor?"

Snape bristled at the use of his title - he hadn't taught at Hogwarts for some years now - but nodded anyway. Kingsley was a decent man and he was overhauling the Ministry in what appeared to be a satisfactory fashion.

"I need to find the right person to kiss," Snape explained. He fidgeted in his seat, crossing and uncrossing legs which appeared more shapely than usual. At least to Lupin's anxious eyes.

"Right. And that would be me, would it?" Kingsley asked. He looked extremely bemused for a moment, before turning his smile into a more serious frown. "Are you sure about this, Severus? I mean we're not exactly..." He paused and waved a hand, trying to search for a word that wasn't an insult.

"Friends?" Snape said. "No, I suppose not. But then very few people are."

There was an awkward silence as all three of the men looked anywhere but at each other.

Finally Lupin cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should..."

"Very well," Snape agreed. He stood up and waited until Kingsley did the same. They stared at each other for a beat, and then Kingsley moved forward to stand in front of Snape.

"Well, normally I'd at least buy you flowers," he said with a smile which Snape did not return.

"If we could..."

But Snape never managed to finish his sentence, as Kingsley grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into a kiss that left him breathless and then gasping desperately for air as he placed a hand against his chest.

"Severus?!" Lupin shouted, jumping up in alarm.

"I'm - I'm all right," Snape replied after a moment, raising up an arm to fend off the other men. "I'm all right." He sank down to the floor and sighed, looking like the loneliest man in the world.

Lupin itched to reach out and help him, but instead he and Kingsley stood, as if statues, until Snape nodded that he was able to move, and Lupin took him home.

**Day Fifteen**

Snape spent the entire day in bed, covers pulled over his head.

Lupin spent the entire day sitting on the floor by Snape's bed, pretending to read.

**Day Sixteen**

Charlie Weasley owled to say that he was delayed in Bulgaria and would come as soon as we was able. Lupin tried to convince Snape to give Fred and George Weasley a go, but failed.

**Day Seventeen**

Snape refused to show Lupin how the changes to his body were progressing, hiding himself in many layers of clothes, claiming that he was only doing so because of the snow, which was still blanketing the world and making getting about for the Muggles in the street around them difficult.

Molly Weasley invited them both over for Christmas and Lupin managed to stop Snape from throwing the invitation (and the owl who brought it) into the fire.

**Day Eighteen**

Lupin accidentally walked in on Snape in the shower.

**Days Nineteen, Twenty and Twenty-One**

Lupin spent his time recovering from the stinging hexes to his genitals that Snape had flung at him in Dumbledore's room at Hogwarts. He deftly avoided talking about what happened on the first day, told Dumbledore everything on the second, and confessed his feelings for Snape on the third.

**Day Twenty-Two**

Snape wasn't used to apologising for anything, and he still did not see why he was in the wrong about this particular matter. After all, Lupin _had_ burst into his bathroom whilst he was naked and seen things that Snape would really rather not think about. He could barely look at his own changing body, he certainly didn't want any gawkers.

But here he was, standing outside of Lupin's front door, feeling faintly ridiculous.

And he also cursed his loyalty to Dumbledore, and that look he had given, of utter disappointment.

Snape was getting tired of disappointing people.

"Lupin, open the bloody door! It is freezing out here."

Snape imagined he could hear Lupin sighing from his bedroom. He waited a few moments, moving from foot to foot and rubbing his hands together to keep warm and was just about to bang on the door again, when it opened.

But instead of Lupin, Snape found himself face to face with Sirius Black.

"Black? What on earth are you doing here?"

"Being a friend. Though I'm sure you'd have no recollection of that. Considering how you normally treat your friends."

"Me? You're one to talk! I - "

"Stop it!" Lupin shouted, and both men took a step back. When Snape looked down he saw that he had his wand in his hand, though he had no recollection of having drawn it out. Sirius looked equally as surprised to have his own wand in his hand.

"Just, go, Severus, please. I'll help you another day."

"That's not - " _why I came here_ he wanted to say, but Lupin was already shutting the door in his face.

**Day Twenty-Three**

Snape, increasingly desperate, and staring at himself in the mirror only as long as it took to realise that yes, those were breasts, jumped, actually _jumped_ when the knock at the door came.

"Really, Severus, pull yourself together," he muttered to himself. He headed downstairs and was so grateful to see Charlie Weasley standing there that he immediately pulled him into a kiss, rather than bother with any such niceties as "hello".

Immediately he felt his chest swell further and knew that Charlie was not the One. Instead of thanking Charlie for coming all that way, he merely shut the door in the other man's face and retired to bed.

**Day Twenty-Four**

The note that arrived at Lupin's house was short and to the point.

> I'm sorry for injuring you. I fear I am running out of time. And friends. Please assist.
> 
> Severus  
> 

Lupin sighed and turned to Snape's owl, which was looking increasingly forlorn. "I know, I know. I'll be there soon." Then he handed the owl a mouse and went to pack a small bag. He would stay with Snape till the end of the month, whatever the consequences.

**Day Twenty-Five**

Hagrid was really too large to fit comfortably inside Snape's house, but at this point Snape was far too reluctant to leave the comfort and relative anonymity of his home, so Lupin had persuaded Hagrid that it would be all right.

He was starting to regret that as one of Hagrid's nervous movements sent another vial of something acidic looking hurtling to the floor.

"All I 'ave to do is kiss the Professor?" Hagrid asked Lupin again. Lupin nodded and tried to smile reassuringly. He failed.

"Well, let's get on with it shall we?" Snape asked. He was standing in the doorway wearing a voluminous robe, gloves and a headscarf. Lupin thought it was to Hagrid's credit that he didn't comment on the get-up, just nodded, smiled and stood up, head smacking against the ceiling.

The kiss was over quickly, barely a touch of lips, but it was obvious, to Lupin anyway, that it hadn't worked. Snape's fingers, even hidden by their gloves, spasmed and his face wore an even more intense sneer than usual.

"I think you can go now, Hagrid," Lupin said. Hagrid sympathetically lowered his head and shambled out of the house.

"It's never going to end, Lupin," Snape said, after a moment. "I shall be stuck this way for all eternity."

Lupin didn't know what to say. What he wanted to do though was pull Snape closer to him. But he didn't. And Snape returned to his room and Lupin returned to pacing the living room, trying to think of someone, anyone, who would qualify as the love of Snape's live.

**Day Twenty-Six**

Snape was becoming increasingly desperate, pulling at his hair, smashing all the mirrors in the house, cursing at Lupin whenever he tried to intervene. He'd spent the morning in his laboratory, scouring over his potion books, trying to find a different solution than having to kiss anyone. But there was nothing.

"Severus. Severus. Severus!" Lupin stepped in front of the other man, grabbing the potions vial from his hand and placing it on the table behind them. "You have to stop this."

Snape turned towards him. "How can I?"

Lupin shrugged. "There's still time. We can find someone. We can get everyone who's ever been to Hogwarts to kiss you if we have to."

Snape looked at him incredulously. "You would do that?"

"We're friends, Severus. Or hadn't you noticed?"

The fact that Snape couldn't reply spoke volumes.

"I'll start sending some owls," Lupin said.

"Very well. I shall..." He waved a hand at the mess he had created. Lupin nodded and after a moment where they did nothing but stare at each other, Lupin headed back to the living room.

**Day Twenty-Seven**

Snape kissed 30 men, but none of them was the One.

**Days Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine**

Snape kissed so many men that he lost count. Lupin didn't, but thought it prudent not to mention the number.

**Day Thirty**

"So this is it, then," Snape said. He sat down at the kitchen table and automatically took the mug of tea that Lupin handed to him. As he always did he took a sip, then moved to butter the toast that Lupin passed towards him.

Only this time he paused. The domesticity of the scene had only just occurred to him. So too had the realisation that he would miss Lupin when he went. That having a companion who actually had a semblance of common sense and wasn't cowed by his moods, was surprisingly pleasant.

Lupin sat down opposite him and starting eating his own breakfast. He looked up when he realised that Snape was staring at him.

"Severus? Are you all right?" Snape remained silently staring at him. "I'm sure you've been through the worst of the change now. And if you, if you have to stay as a woman then, well, it's not that bad...and I'm sure no one will, I mean, I won't think any...and I seem to be rambling but you're not, you're...What are you doing?"

Snape had stood up whilst Lupin was talking and moved to stand in front of him. Then, still without saying a word, he pulled a startled Lupin into a kiss.

The effect was instantaneous. Snape's hair began to pull at his head, his hands started to curl up, his fingernails shortening. There was a shooting pain in his chest as his breasts disappeared and he could _feel_ his organs twisting and realigning themselves. He fell to the floor, Lupin tumbling after him, holding his sides and then rubbing his back, whispering nonsense words in his ears.

"It's all right," Lupin said, for the hundredth time. "It's all right, Severus. You're all right. We're all right." He sounded astonished and Snape was sure that if he looked up Lupin's expression would be gratifyingly bemused. But he had no energy for that right now, no energy except to kneel and thank Merlin that what he'd been looking for had been right there all along.

**Every Day After**

All was well.


End file.
